Method of producing skinless frankfurters



F PRODUCING. SKINLESS St wart 2,119 L Gr n e limass t it tsfipmr.

ma Q lisiasii lls'a 'qrmta is i o Illinois N2 Drawina. A p sa oni u 30,1951, ths-twis he eht yeh iqn elate in; ne a o p cesses for the maiiuactureoflinked rneatproducts suchas skin: less 'f orlthe like and moreparticularly to an M s ihk f t hq l h P o s e iai we of sk nle -f nkfurts s ge and the like,iwhei'ein the product is processed or treated whileenclosed intemporary, shape-retaining members such as water-insolublesausage casings, and thereafter removed fromjthc cas ngs for furthertreatment or sale, has been,

casing covering aplur'ality of; links rather than on the This means thatthe tie.

individual links themselves. strings'betvveen the linksof, product mustbe removed prior.' introduction of :the links into the casing-splittingmachine. and that the casing. between the links must liot'gbe sveredasia resultof such removal. Means have.

heretofore been proposedfor straightening out the twists inure casing ateach end of; the individual links, once the ties have been removed, e.g., by applying tension to the string of links, HDWS LCL T, the removalof'thetielstrings, because of the. necessity of.retaining,the.casingintact, has remained'essefitially a hand operation, and as such asconstituted a bottleneqk in the otherwise mechanized prdc ses-Itistherefore an objectof this invention to provide a method whichovercomes the necessity for hand removal 51 as aties.

'It is a further object of the invention to provide a method for thepreparation of linked meat products wherein the step of removing theties between the links is eliminated.

Another object of the invention is to provide an improved method forlinking meat products in temporary casings.

Additional objects, it not specifically set forth herein, will bereadily apparent to one skilled in the art from the following detaileddescription of the invention.

It has now been found that the problem of tie string removal, which hasheretofore hindered the rapid manufacture of linked meat products, canbe overcome and obviated entirely by replacing the conventional cottontie strings with a particular type of string capable of beingsubstantially weakened upon exposure to the cooking conditions employedin the processing of the linked products.

More specifically it has now been found that, when links of frankfurtsor the like enclosed in water-insoluble casings are separated by tiestrings composed essentially of carboxymethylated cellulose, the linkswill be retained in the desided shape throughout the cooking operation,while the tie strings are either completely disintegrated at the end ofsuch operation or are so weakened as to be readily broken when thecasing is fed into a casing-splitting machine.

The method of preparing the carboxymethylated cellulose string does notform a part of the present invention and is not set forth herein indetail since it is described in the literature and the product may beobtained commercially. Essentially the product is an ordinary cottonstring having up to three carboxymethyl groups introduced therein. Thepreferred degree of carboxymethylation of 2,698,801 Patented Jan. 4, 1955,

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ih r at d. trin A; ea ed trina eq ir h R un s P1 o reak; h s. PLQYQR; ra y use on commercial air-jet, casingopening magh The string ties usedin linking processes must be; L sable Qft rtillas. a QPWllPPillStkIlQh.Since. thet e e a u d-is m r lya q ihaand mss h Qfi he str n s. it is et a h h sttinshaye e y. ittle. e liency in; the sense of pr n h ss or heike. e strin -must: also e o a he ames rt cech taetsris ,Qnf elas. e e ctto t in T ese. Qha acteus. p m p t hcew en t es riha s Q;be ppli dbetwea. the individual links of a string o f fra lkfll iiS 0r thelilge; u the an e f he r n shnty ns wh a he l nks are haildl d'p lim n r o oo i Mny th r. ypes. of-water soluble stringsare knowrna :for example stringsprq h t f llmflsal n e i in smade f: p-g h alcoho e ns. w h ea d; o tgs. of h s: yp f ce i a e. e. op hd n ppli at on of; 136M151 ue kerts.Serial e 70.949. file Ju 2.8, 19. 9.. he uc p lyy i y a whol; nd. .alina t ings; a e, distlosed? h P sent a iq rep esent n; m: m em n Qy hethod isc s e n. a dear rrfile l l s t e n ha t: h sbsem auh ha thesrings of:

the present invention are not soslippery and possess less dere e s renth. niti y, about 0-9 pounds, in order to prevent;breakageof theties andthe consequent I unwinding; of the casing between the links,

The string should preferably benontoxic, although itmay beseen thatlthisisnot-essentiabwhenit is considered that the v.productis completelyenclosedwin a continuous.water,-- insoluble casing and ;will hence notco ne into direct; c qn e' tht h i i k hi h he tri l diss es l Thestring used must also meet two requirements with respect to its ease ofsolubility. Firstly, it must retain its strength and identity for asufficient period of time to permit the product within the casings toset up or become self-sustaining in the shape defined by the tiedcasing. Secondly, it must be either completely disintegrated orsubstantially so by the end of the normal cooking period in order toobviate the necessity of severing the strings by hand.

In carrying out the present invention, for example in the manufacture ofskinless frankfurts, the ground frankfurt meat is fed to a conventionalstuffing machine which extrudes the meat under pressure into a long,flexible, water-insoluble casing made from natural animal intestines orfrom synthetic materials such as regenerated cellulose or otherfilm-forming organic material. The casing is then formed into links byany suitable and conventional apparatus. The links are then tied off ateach end with the carboxymethylated cellulose string. The linked productis then smoked in the usual manner known'to the art. Upon removal fromthe smoke, the links are immersed in a fluid bath, preferably water, andcooked in such bath at a temperature of about F. for a period of aboutfifteen minutes. Upon removal from the bath, the carboxymethylatedstrings will be weakened to the point where the tension applied to thelinks as they are fed through a conventional casing-stripping machinewill eas ly snap those strings which still retain their originalposition about the casings intermediate the links of product.Preferably, the strings are snapped by the use of air ets, asillustrated in the patent to Golden et al., No. 2,434,316. Thus, no handor machine operation is necessary for removal of the tie strings, and anentire step S are at heretofore considered essential in the manufactureof linked, skinless meat products is completely eliminated.

It has been found desirable to use nonaqueous lubricants in place of thewater conventionally used in the tying machines. Lubricants such asethyl alcohol, monoacetin (alone or in alcohol solution), a 33 per centsolution of monoglyceride in alcohol, or a silicone polymer (Dow Corning2103) as a 33 per cent mixture in toluene, have proven very satisfactoryin preventing premature weakening of the carboxymethylated cellulosestrings.

Obviously, many modifications and variations of the inventionhereinbefore set forth may be made without departing from the spirit andscope thereof, and therefore only such limitations should be imposed asare indicated in the appended claims.

I claim:

1. A method for the manufacture of skinless meat products whichcomprises: enclosing a comminuted meat product within a water-insoluble,flexible casing; forming said casing-enclosed product into a pluralityof individual links; separating said links by carboxymethylatedcellulose ties; thereafter heating said links to cook the product and tosubstantially weaken said ties; and removing said product from saidcasing.

2. A method for the manufacture of skinless meat products whichcomprises: applying carboxymethylated cellulose ties at spaced intervalsalong a flexible, water-insoluble casing enclosing a comminuted meatproduct; heating said casing-enclosed product to cooking temperatureswhereby said carboxymethylated cellulose ties are substantiallyweakened; removing said weakened ties from said casing by air pressure;and thereafter separating said cooked product from said water-insolublecasing.

3. A method for the manufacture of skinless meat products whichcomprises: stuffing a comminuted meat product into a long,water-insoluble, flexible casing; subdividing said product within saideasing into a plurality of links; tying the casing between saidindividual links with a water-soluble carboxymethylated cellulosestring; cooking said subdivided product in said casing by immersion in ahot fluid bath whereby said product becomes self-sustaining and saidstring is substantially weakened and thereafter removing said string andsaid casing from said cooked products.

4. A method for the manufacture of skinless meat products whichcompises: enclosing a comminuted meat product within a water-insoluble,flexible casing; subdividing said product within said casing to form aplurality of individual links; applying ties to the exterior of saidcasing between said links, said ties comprising a carboxymethylatedcellulose string; cooking the linked product in a fluid bath wherebysaid ties are substantially weakened; removing said weakened ties fromsaid casing from said links.

5. In the manufacture of skinless meat products wherein a comminutedmeat product is formed into links within a water-insoluble, flexiblecasing, the step comprising;

applying ties of carboxymethylated cellulose string to the exterior ofsaid casing between the individual links.

6. In the manufacture of skinless meat products wherein a comminutedmeat product is formed into links within a temporary, water-insoluble,flexible casing, the steps comprising; tying the casing between saidlinks with a carboxymethylated cellulose string; immersing said tiedlinks in a heated bath for a sufficient period of time to cook saidproduct and to substantially weaken said string around said casing; andthereafter removing said weakened string and said casing from saidcooked product.

7. In a process of producing skinless frankfurters, the steps comprisingencasing a relatively long mass of prepared meat within an artificialcasing, tightly winding water-solubilized cotton tie strings about thecasing at spaced intervals along the length thereof to separate the meatinto individual sections and thus convert the elongated fiiled casinginto a chain of links, then subjecting the chain of links to smoking andheating to cure and at least partially cook the meat while retaining inlink form within the casing, then subjecting the chain to moisture todissolve the tie strings, and then deskirming the chain to remove thecasing and produce a series of individual skinless frankfurters.

8. In a process of poducing skinless frankfurters, the steps comprisingencasing a relatively long mass of prepared meat within an artificialcasing, tightly winding water-soluble carboxymethylated cotton tiestrings about the casing at spaced intervals along the length thereof toseparate the meat into individual sections and thus convert theelongated filled easing into a chain of links, then subjecting the chainof links to smoking and heating to cure and at least partially cook themeat while retained in link form within the casing, then subjecting thechain to moisture to dissolve the tie strings, and then deskinning thechain to remove the casing and produce a series of individual skinlessfrankfurters.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS1,964,011 Vogt June 26, 1934 2,216,045 Powers et al Sept. 24, 1940FOREIGN PATENTS 386,161 Great Britain Ian. 12, 1933

1. A METHOD FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF SKINLESS MEAT PRODUCTS WHICHCOMPRISES: ENCLOSING A COMMINUTED MEAT PRODUCT WITHIN A WATER-INSOLUBLE,FLEXIBLE CASING; FORMING SAID CASING-ENCLOSED PRODUCT INTO A PLURALITYOF INDIVIDUAL LINKS; SEPARATING SAID LINKS BY CARBOXYMETHYLATEDCELLULOSE TIES; THEREAFTER HEATING SAID LINKS TO COOK THE PRODUCT AND TOSUBSTANTIALLY WEAKEN SAID TIES; AND REMOVING SAID PRODUCT FROM SAIDCASING.